1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for optimizing the use and availability of storage space. More specifically, the present invention is directed to systems and methods for selectively and intelligently tagging programs that a viewer desires to have recorded on a storage device to indicate the manner or priority for recording the programs in order to optimize the use of the storage space, and for selectively and intelligently eliminating programs that have been recorded to optimize the availability of the storage space.
2. The Prior State of the Art
Home entertainment systems are able to receive a variety of different programming channels from various sources at any time of the day or night. The channels carry public, cable and/or satellite television programming. When a viewer desires to record a program, the viewer usually programs a videocassette recorder (“VCR”), a digital video recorder (“DVR”), or another recording system of the home entertainment system to record the program.
When a VCR is used to record a program, the viewer supplies a videocassette and determines where on the videocassette the program is to be recorded. If other programs have been recorded on the videocassette so that an insufficient amount of space is available, the viewer obtains another videocassette that has sufficient space available, records over one or more of the previously recorded programs, or chooses to not record the program. Frequently, the viewer is unsure of what has been previously recorded and therefore must manually scan the videocassette to determine what has been recorded, which can be a time consuming process. Often, a new videocassette is obtained to record the desired program. As such, it is common for a viewer to obtain over time a collection of videocassettes upon which the viewer is uncertain as to what has been recorded. The collection is rarely reduced, as viewers normally do not take the time to determine which programs are not needed, and can be recorded over in order to eliminate the amount of storage space used to store recorded programs.
When a DVR is used to record a program, a storage disk is used that generally is internal to the system, thereby eliminating the clutter of videocassettes. However, since the amount of storage space available on a disk is limited, the disk can become full. As such, once all of the disk space has been used for recording programs, the viewer must still manually determine from the recorded programs which programs can be erased or recorded over to free up space on the disk for the recording of new programs. As with the VCR, this manual process is time consuming and can result in programs being inadvertently recorded over.